[2] Cochemiea insularis typically grows in groups, with flattened, mostly spherical blue-green bodies reaching up to 6 cm in height and 5 cm in diameter.

The fleshy roots support conical warts without milky sap, while axillae may be bare or woolly with few bristles.

It features a 1 cm long hooked central spine with a brown tip and 20 to 30 needle-like white marginal spines, each up to 0.5 cm long.

Its funnel-shaped flowers, 1.5 to 2.5 cm wide, are light pink, and its orange-red club-shaped fruits, up to 1 cm in size, contain black seeds.

[4] Initially described as Mammillaria insularis in 1938 by Howard Elliott Gates, Cochemiea insularis was later reclassified into the genus Cochemiea by Peter B. Breslin and Lucas C. Majure in 2021.